This wasn’t quite your typical young adult SF novel. Yes there was the potential for a love triangle, but that never really develops (thankfully!) and the main protagonist, Lark, spends a good portion of the novel alone. She’s not all powerful, clearly flawed, but this makes her more interesting. She has room to grow into her adult self and learns to be strong, stubborn and independent. I loved the blend of “magic” and machines, and how even the mechanimals are not purely good or evil, white and black, but are shades of grey. Pixie seems to evolve and, as machines don’t lie, she cleverly echoes Lark’s words to manipulate the truth.
Lark travels from a mechanical society to a nature based community, yet she doesn’t find peace in either, which reflects on our own society. No longer can we expect to return to a Garden of Eden state nor can we completely discard the natural world. Our future depends on a existence of both, an Equilibrium society.
I’m keen to read the rest.